Welcome!

This weekly-ish vegan blog is based on the food coming out of my (tiny) home kitchen in Toronto. After 25 years in this fascinating multicultural city of five million, my tastebuds have learned that there's always a new flavour waiting to be experienced. That endless variety is what I'm trying to reflect in these posts. Read more...

Rich Vegan Mushroom Linguine with Basil

After last week's burrito adventure, I wanted to do something a lot simpler. But I also wanted a dish in the same comfort food vein as the burrito, something that leaves you completely satisfied while staying within the boundaries of a vegan diet. Let's just say I ate pasta all week. I wanted a basil pesto flavour overall, but I also wanted a ton of mushrooms. It took a little while to get it right.

I took some inspiration from this deliciously simple vegan parmesan substitute from Vegan in the Freezer. Raw cashews and nutritional yeast have an unbelievably parmesan-like taste when ground together in a 4:1 ratio. (In a couple of my early attempts, I tried to go full Alfredo by grinding the cashews down to cream with a little water. The result wasn't inedible, but it just didn't work for me. I still finished all of it, mind you. There are going to be a couple of extra exercise sessions this week.) This final version isn't creamy, but it still has all the vegan satisfaction I was hoping for. Enjoy!

Ingredients

(serves 2)

300 g (about 11 oz) vegan linguine

1 lb button mushrooms

3 shallots, chopped fine

1/2 cup raw cashews

2 Tbl nutritional yeast

2 + 3 Tbl olive oil

1 tsp powdered thyme

1 tsp salt

5 cloves garlic

10-12 leaves of fresh basil

Directions

This recipe has a fair bit of prep up front because things come together quickly once the pan heats up.

Start by cleaning and slicing the mushrooms into bite-sized pieces.

Then, chop the shallots fine.

Wash and dry the basil leaves (but don't chop them yet).

Put the cashews and nutritional yeast into a food processor and process them down to small particles (smaller than chunks, but a little bigger than powder).

Peel the garlic cloves and have them ready on the chopping board.

Get the pot of water ready on the stove and generously salt the water, but don't turn on the heat yet.